Happy Holidays from Disneyland! Part 3: Characters, Shopping, and Food!

Now that we've seen Disneyland and California Adventure at its holiday best in Part 1 and Part 2, what about all the fun characters, food and goodies, and shopping to be done? Let's dive right in!

Characters

Although full-blown parades as we used to know them aren't back yet, you'll be happy to know that you can still catch mini parades and appearances of some of Disney's most popular characters! 

Happy Holidays from Disneyland! Part 2: California Adventure and Spider-Man Webslingers!

Welcome back to part 2 of Happy Holidays at Disneyland Resort! Let's pop over to see what's going on at California Adventure, from holiday decorations, the new Spider-Man Webslingers ride, and Cars Land. Quick note: the new Genie+ and Lightning Lane services have launched at the Disney parks, so you can shorten your wait times! Read more here.

California Adventure

DCA is currently drawing visitors with its Festival of Holidays. a "seasonal celebration of diverse cultural festivities with music, food and fun for all, from November 12, 2021 to January 9, 2022!" This includes holidays such as Christmas, Navidad, Hanukkah, Diwalki, Kwanzaa, and Three Kings' Day (special ticketed event running only from January 3-9). You can spot special musical performers from holiday toy drummers to a capella, jazz, and rock. 

Disney Launches NEW Genie+ and Lightning Lane Services

Exciting news has landed, Disney lovers! Visitors have been bummed for a long time that FastPass and MaxPass never returned upon the reopening of the California parks, but new versions have officially launched! The only caveat is they are no longer free as FastPass used to be.

These new services are called Genie+ and Lightning Lanes. 

Disneyland App Genie Service

There is now a complementary Genie service in the Disneyland app which lets you set up your travel party and select your interests and preferences to build out an itinerary and tip board. You can then view "My day" and the tip board listing your reservations and other things you've indicated interest in with their event/wait times.

Happy Holidays from Disneyland!

Hello Disney lovers, and welcome to this special holiday edition! I'll take you through the full experience of the holidays at Disneyland and California Adventure 2021. If you're interested in my full review of Halloween at Disneyland 2021, check it out!

I can't remember if I've been to Disneyland California before during the holiday season due to avoiding higher crowds/prices (I have, however, been at Disney Japan. Did you know you can find mistletoe there?). Anyway, I was thrilled to get an inside look thanks to my new key pass!

Don't let the holiday season discourage you from going: with the limited capacity in place, crowds have been manageable even when I went on Saturdays! I've heard reports of barely any people a

Christmas runs through Jan. 9, so check out those reservation dates and book while you can!

Without further ado, let's dive into the lights, festive treats, and special experiences that await!

Disneyland

As you enter the park, you'll enjoy the special snowflake design over the entrance gates, which of course lights up beautifully at night.

Halloween at Disneyland Part 3: Food, Characters, Plaza Point Holiday Shop

The best part of Halloween time at Disneyland is the food, amiright? I can't wait to show you some of the treats I enjoyed plus some very special characters and the brand new Plaza Point Holiday Shop featuring year-round holiday merch!

(If you missed part 1 and part 2 covering Disneyland and California Adventure, check it out!)

Food

Halloween is the season of pumpkin spice, so I had to try these pumpkin fritters from Royal Street Veranda just outside the Pirates ride. So moist and served with the most amazing cream cheese dipping sauce! It's $5.99 for three, and annual pass holders get 15% of almost all food in the park.